Indians: Tyler Naquin makes adjustments to boost power

By
Jim Ingraham, The Morning Journal & The News-Herald

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Tyler Naquin took the call while in a boat, fishing on a lake near his home in Iola, Texas, about 160 miles south of Dallas.
It was Indians assistant director of player development Carter Hawkins, calling to tell Naquin he was going to be invited to the Indians’ major-league training camp.
“I told Carter, ‘You made my year,’ ” said Naquin, the Indians’ first-round pick in the 2012 June Draft. “Then I looked at my friend and said, ‘Dude, I’m going to the big-league camp.’”
Even now, in the retelling of the story, Naquin speaks of the moment with a degree of wonder.
“You always dream about going to your first big-league camp,” he said. “You see others going, and now, for it to be my turn. ... ” Naquin doesn’t finish the thought, probably because he still isn’t finished thinking about it.
The 22-year-old left-handed hitting centerfielder is entering his third professional season after the Indians selected him with the 15th overall pick in the first round of the 2012 June Draft out of Texas A&M. He will go to his first big-league camp fresh off a breakout stint in the Arizona Fall League, where major-league teams send many of their elite prospects.
Naquin was named to the league’s all-star team after hitting .339 (eighth in the league), while leading the league in hits, and finishing second in runs scored.
When the Indians selected him, Naquin was rated the best pure hitter in the 2012 June Draft, having hit .381 and .380 in his sophomore and junior years at Texas A&M. What Naquin wasn’t, however, was a power hitter. He hit only seven home runs in 687 at-bats in his three-year college career, then didn’t hit any home runs in 137 at-bats in his first professional season at Mahoning Valley.
Last year, however, Naquin voluntarily made some changes to his hitting mechanics hoping to increase his extra-base power, and the changes were fairly dramatic. He hit a combined 10 home runs with 30 doubles and six triples in 528 at-bats between High Single-A Carolina and Double-A Akron.
Then came his Arizona Fall League emergence, all of which did not go unnoticed by Indians officials.
“The big thing with Tyler is that he had a lot of success as an amateur hitting one way, but he was open-minded about it and was willing to make significant adjustments in the middle of the season to help him drive the ball more. You don’t typically see that, especially from a high draft pick like that,” said Indians farm director Ross Atkins.
According to Atkins, Naquin initially struggled with the new mechanics, but he stuck with it and it eventually paid off.
“He really worked at making those adjustments and he did it in the middle of the season, which is very difficult to do,” Atkins said. “And this was a guy who had a ton of success hitting the old way, but still wanted to make the changes.”
Naquin said he was determined to not just make the changes, but make sure they worked.
“It mostly had to do with my timing,” he said. “I had always been a wiry hitter. My hand-eye coordination has always been pretty good, but I wanted to become a stronger hitter, and I’ve done that by using my legs more.”
If a 30th-round draft pick makes changes, nobody notices. But when a first-round pick does, everyone notices, because everyone watches when a No. 1 pick walks to the plate.
“When you’re a No. 1 pick, the expectations are unsaid, but nobody has to say anything. You know it yourself,” said Naquin of the pressure of being a top draft pick.
Naquin said his spike in home runs last year came as much from his approach to hitting as his hitting mechanics.
“I’m laying off more pitches now, not trying to be a hero, but trying to hammer the ones I can get to,” he said.
Naquin is expected to start the 2014 season at Akron, and his power may get an added boost from the 16 pounds of muscle he has added over the winter.
“I finished last season at 170 pounds. I’m at 186 now,” he said.
That should help him fill out his uniform even better at his first major-league camp.